OPEN UP: ACCESS, EXPERIENCE, & PARTICIPATION IN THE GLAM SECTOR

GLAM Guide | Madison Carmichael

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In his presentation at re:publica 2019, the thirteenth edition of that conference, Douglas McCarthy centered his keynote talk around the following quote from the American judge and legal philosopher Learned Hand: 

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right...it seeks to understand the minds of other men and women.” (Learned Hand, 1872-1961)

He tells us that in this quote is a humility that he would like to see more of in the museum sector, though I’d argue that it’s applicable to the GLAM sector writ large. Certainly, there is a beautiful sort of freedom in the admittance of I don’t know. When we don’t know something, we reach out. We ask questions. And when others answer, hopefully we listen. 

McCarthy goes on to say that museums should embrace “a confident but unsure listening mode.” The time is past for top-down dictation to the public. There’s been a shift in how people interact with GLAM content and with the institutions themselves, so we’re faced with a more participatory reality, and the challenge for the GLAM sector, McCarthy says, lies in embracing it.  

So, it’s time for the GLAM sector to open up. Or, to continue opening up. This includes both opening the GLAM mindset to experiences that are immersive and innovative and opening the sector’s extensive collections to the public. It means re-establishing GLAM institutions as places for community. 

I’ll admit that this is a very lofty assertion. But it is a worthwhile one, and it’s not as though we’re starting from scratch. In the GLAM sector, several institutions have already begun to embrace a more accessible, experiential, and participatory approach to their work. 

Through the Rijksstudio, the Rijksmuseum has allowed for much of their collection to be viewed by the public. Source.

Perhaps the most well-known and widespread trend in the GLAM sector is growing access to the full collection of an institution through digitization. These collections are available in their entirety, rather than as curated exhibits. The Rijksstudio, a project from the Rijksmuseum, takes this a step further. By allowing visitors to create their own “studio,” or collection of artworks and objects, the Rijksstudio makes apparent the stories that each and every visitor uncovers within the collection. Flowers, fancy headgear, animals and more – studios created by users reveals the multitude of stories hidden within the collection that are yet to be told. 

With less than 5% of the collection shown in the museum, the SFMOMA decided that the best way to show off their artwork was to bring it out from the museum. Source.

In the same vein, GLAM institutions are changing how they display their collections physically. For museums like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an institution that displays less than 5% of their collection within the actual museum, physical display isn’t enough. In June 2017, SFMOMA launched “Send me SFMOMA,” a digital initiative wherein a person would text a number, with a keyword, colour, or emoji, and the SFMOMA would send them a related artwork by text. The aim was to show more of SFMOMA’s collection with people across the United States, and through this service, people could personalize what artwork they received. The response was overwhelming; by the end of July 2017, SFMOMA had received over 3.7 million text requests. Many, many people invited art and culture into their daily lives, and they didn’t have to visit the museum to do it.  

More than just their collections, GLAM institutions have also begun to digitize exhibits, opening up their content and stories to audiences beyond their buildings. The Warsaw Rising Museum exhibits decades of Polish history online. Source. 

Part of that “listening mode” I mentioned earlier is learning where people are at. For some, that is not within a GLAM institution, for a multitude of reasons. As with moving collections online, many institutions have begun to move visitor experiences beyond their walls as well. SFMOMA did so through a digital service, bringing a personally curated art experience to people across the United States. The Warsaw Rising Museum  delivered an entire exhibit through a website. “Warsaw Rising” depicts the history of Warsaw from 1918 onward. The focus is, of course, is the Warsaw Rising, but there is certainly a thematic emphasis on Warsaw as a dynamic, developing city, despite its hardships. It is a fully interactive exhibit with compelling text, audio, and visuals – it is indeed an entire exhibit online. 

Europeana provides access for 50 million digitized items from many European institutions. Source.

I want to close by returning to Douglas McCarthy for a moment. As Collections Manager for Europeana Collections, McCarthy is part of an organization that works with thousands of European archives, libraries, and museums to share cultural heritage with the aim of making it easier to use, whether that be for work, learning, or fun. This approach is useful, I think, for the GLAM sector wholesale; in working to make cultural heritage easier to use, access, and explore, we make it accessible to a wider public, thereby opening up our institutions to a greater world of possibility.